Trying to register Office 2008 - Invalid PID!

[drm0223]

I am trying to register Office 2008. The website rejects the PID that appears in all the About menus so I can't register. Can someone at MS kindly fix this?

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, get them on the phone (on the toll-free number...)

The website is broken...

I am trying to register Office 2008. The website rejects the PID that appears
in all the About menus so I can't register. Can someone at MS kindly fix
this?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Priyanka Singhal]

Hello,
Please try using Firefox or other browser, as this issue sems to be in safari only.
Hope this helps,
Priyanka
I am trying to register Office 2008. The website rejects the PID that appears in all the About menus so I can't register. Can someone at MS kindly fix this?

 

[Stephen]

Tried Firefox. It doesn't work either.

 

[Alberto Ricci]

I've been trying to register too, and the PID is rejected regardless of whether I type the hyphens or not.
Unbelievable.
Alberto.

 

[John McGhie]

Oh, hell, don't tempt them

The Search IS automatic on the Dark Side, which is the source of all the
misdirected posts we were copping in here.

On MacTopia, the search is there, but it relies on the user to hit the
button. And it works better, because it is tightly-constrained to just the
Mac groups.

The Mactopia Communities are actually a hell of a lot better than the
standard Microsoft Communities webnews (better than Google!!!). And the
vendor who than coded it is MUCH more responsive.

They are RAPIDLY fixing the issues with the new interface.

Let's ... Ummm ... Just keep this a little secret between ourselves until we
get our bugs solved, huh? If we tell the Dark Side, they'll want one too,
and then there goes the neighbourhood...

Just to update you:

* The Web Interface IS being fixed.

* Thread by Reference works well. Anyone on Hogwasher already knew that.

* Thread by Subject depends on the subject line being unchangeable on a
Reply. That has now been done: the Subject line is read-only if you reply.

* The posting format is being switched to TXT. That should happen next
week. I am not sure whether that will be overideable, or just a default. I
am hoping plain text will be the default, so people who need to send long
lines still can.

Quoted replies may take a bit longer: that's harder

Cheers

ugh...

You know, if Microsoft is going to put a silly web interface on these
news groups, maybe they should also code their web front end to
automatically do key word searches on existing posts BEFORE allowing a
new post to go through. I mean, heck... if you're already going through
the trouble of creating a web interface and all - how hard can it be?

Make it smart - save our sanity, please!

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that people using search is why people keep
appending new questions to long gone threads, which is rapidly driving
me crazy. Either that or the idiotic "most popular" listing that is
front and center.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Microsoft's snazzy new web interface could examine the subject of a
potential post before allowing the post. If the subject has changed
significantly from the current thread, they could throw up an
informative dialog stating the issue and offering to create a new topic
(or even better, move the new post to a more appropriate topic about the
same issue that already exists).

I don't know....I think that would take some very intelligent computing.
I mean people are posting in threads that use the same keywords, so I
kinda see why they do it (example: bibliography). They just don't have
the same qustions, symptoms, version or much else, so it's clearly not
the same problem. Is AI at the point of parsing that type of distinction
yet?

Daiya

 

[Diane Ross]

You know, if Microsoft is going to put a silly web interface on these
news groups,

I don't see a need for a web interface at all. Most people use it because
they don't know another way to contact this newsgroup. They don't even know
it's a newsgroup. I think from the attitude we're getting they think they
have contacted Microsoft support. I say put up instructions on using a
newsreader. It's pretty darn easy to do with the Entourage newsreader.

If they don't fix this soon they are going to find all of the volunteers on
the newsgroups locked up for observation.

How to subscribe to the Microsoft Entourage newsgroup

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/subnews.html>

 

[John McGhie]

You're only saying that because YOU are the Queen of Entourage

I don't see a need for a web interface at all. Most people use it because
they don't know another way to contact this newsgroup. They don't even know
it's a newsgroup. I think from the attitude we're getting they think they
have contacted Microsoft support. I say put up instructions on using a
newsreader. It's pretty darn easy to do with the Entourage newsreader.

If they don't fix this soon they are going to find all of the volunteers on
the newsgroups locked up for observation.

How to subscribe to the Microsoft Entourage newsgroup

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/subnews.html>

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[JE McGimpsey]

And unfortunately, the reign of newsreaders, or even using Entourage for
product support, is over.

They're vital tools for the efficiency of those *answering* posts, which
is why web portal designers *should* take into account how posts will
show up and be threaded in nntp.

But 99% of those posting problems will be (if they're not already) doing
so via a web-based portal. There's no *reason* for them to learn new
tools, or new applications of existing ones - they post, get notified
when there's an answer, and move on.

OTOH *I* think that everyone should be able to use Terminal.app to
telnet into the msnews farm to monitor how it's operating, as I do on
occasion.

And know how to read news via pine.

I also think that folks should be competent with Gopher and Archie and
Veronica (though, sadly, I don't have client apps that work in Mac OS
X)...

*I* think that newsservers should still honor Cancel requests...

And of course, *I* think that nobody should *EVER* attach a file to
email - that's such an *INCREDIBLY* inefficient system, and a *HUGE*
waste of bandwidth. Instead, everyone should simply post the file to a
FTP server, and send the recipient a URI to retrieve it with their
favorite FTP Client (I have several: Transmit, Interarchy, and Fetch,
though I occasionally just fire up Terminal.app and do it directly).

But it ain't likely to happen...

 

[John McGhie]

While I agree with all of you, that Damnable Web Interface is bloody handy
when I am behind the corporate firewalls of Mega Corporation

Ain't NOTHING but Port 80 gets through that, and then only if your boss's
boss's boss signs off in triplicate

Cheers

And unfortunately, the reign of newsreaders, or even using Entourage for
product support, is over.

They're vital tools for the efficiency of those *answering* posts, which
is why web portal designers *should* take into account how posts will
show up and be threaded in nntp.

But 99% of those posting problems will be (if they're not already) doing
so via a web-based portal. There's no *reason* for them to learn new
tools, or new applications of existing ones - they post, get notified
when there's an answer, and move on.

OTOH *I* think that everyone should be able to use Terminal.app to
telnet into the msnews farm to monitor how it's operating, as I do on
occasion.

And know how to read news via pine.

I also think that folks should be competent with Gopher and Archie and
Veronica (though, sadly, I don't have client apps that work in Mac OS
X)...

*I* think that newsservers should still honor Cancel requests...

And of course, *I* think that nobody should *EVER* attach a file to
email - that's such an *INCREDIBLY* inefficient system, and a *HUGE*
waste of bandwidth. Instead, everyone should simply post the file to a
FTP server, and send the recipient a URI to retrieve it with their
favorite FTP Client (I have several: Transmit, Interarchy, and Fetch,
though I occasionally just fire up Terminal.app and do it directly).

But it ain't likely to happen...

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Diane Ross]

LOL John. I'm just really good at saving answers and finding them again.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Hope I am not intruding too inappropriately...

The one great virtue of the web interface is being notified when someone has
answered your question. That¹s missing from all newsreaders I¹m aware of,
and it¹s a really big deal for the question asker.

Totally agree that they should do something to keep people from adding to
old threads, but (!) ...

How many times have I read posts from MVPs and others suggesting that people
should scan the threads before posting a question that may already have been
answered. Sort of a pushmepullyou for the hoi polloi, no?

Mind you, anything that makes your contributions harder to make is obviously
bad ­ especially their not making it clear that all of this help comes from
volunteers who are rewarded occasionally with a kind word, crust of bread,
and an extra ration of salt.

LOL John. I'm just really good at saving answers and finding them again.

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003
Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Diane Ross]

Totally agree that they should do something to keep people from adding to old
threads, but (!) ...

We need to see replies too so we know what's been suggested and tried.

How many times have I read posts from MVPs and others suggesting that people
should scan the threads before posting a question that may already have been
answered. Sort of a pushmepullyou for the hoi polloi, no?

If users will use it, that will be a great new feature.

Mind you, anything that makes your contributions harder to make is obviously
bad ­ especially their not making it clear that all of this help comes from
volunteers who are rewarded occasionally with a kind word, crust of bread, and
an extra ration of salt.

You have a description of an MVP down pat.

 

[John McGhie]

Hey!! Who got a crust of bread?? I never got a crust of bread!!
Waaaaaahhhhhhh.....

Hope I am not intruding too inappropriately...

The one great virtue of the web interface is being notified when someone has
answered your question. That¹s missing from all newsreaders I¹m aware of,
and it¹s a really big deal for the question asker.

Totally agree that they should do something to keep people from adding to
old threads, but (!) ...

How many times have I read posts from MVPs and others suggesting that people
should scan the threads before posting a question that may already have been
answered. Sort of a pushmepullyou for the hoi polloi, no?

Mind you, anything that makes your contributions harder to make is obviously
bad ­ especially their not making it clear that all of this help comes from
volunteers who are rewarded occasionally with a kind word, crust of bread,
and an extra ration of salt.




Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003
Windows XP Pro SP2

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Bill Weylock]

So from now on when people search for crust? ...

Hey!! Who got a crust of bread?? I never got a crust of bread!!
Waaaaaahhhhhhh.....

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2